The University of Pennsylvania Summer Undergraduate Internship Program (SUIP) is a 10-week intensive research opportunity for visiting undergraduate students. This summer, the Schmidt Lab was fortunate to welcome Camille Carthy, Lafayette College Class of 2023, as a SUIP intern.  During her short time in the lab, Camille contributed to various complex behavioral projects that furthered the labs understanding of the role of amygdalar GLP-1R signaling in the reinstatement of cocaine seeking during withdrawal. Most notably, Camille used her previous research experiences to aid in the lab’s exploration of cocaine administration and GLP-1R activation on amygdala neural dynamics using in vivo calcium imaging techniques. In addition to all her hard work in the lab, as a SUIP intern Camille also participated in weekly seminars, professional development workshops, and had the opportunity to present her summer research at both the SUIP Symposium and the Leadership Alliance National Symposium in Hartford, CT.

The Schmidt Lab thanks Camille for a great summer and wishes her the best of luck during her senior year at Lafayette where she is expected to graduate with a BS in Neuroscience next spring!!

Congratulations to Amanda Moreno (B.A.), Riley Merkel (B.A.), Kamryn Stecyk (B.S.), and Suditi Rahematpura (B.S.) (pictured left to right) on their recent graduation from the University of Pennsylvania and the Schmidt Lab as a part of the Undergraduate Class of 2021!

The four graduates have been invaluable members of the Schmidt Lab team during their time as students at Penn. All have been awarded grants, fellowships, and/or awards for their research endeavors over the years. Most recently, and mentored by Dr. Schmidt, Moreno and Merkel successfully defended their senior honors theses at the Annual Neuroscience Research Symposium. This feat landed both Moreno and Merkel Neuroscience degrees with Honors Distinction at graduation and Moreno with the 2021 Elliot Stellar Award for best research talk.

Despite their shared learning experiences in the Schmidt lab, the young women have all forged their own unique paths for the future. This coming year Moreno will be serve as co-President and Director of Be Body Positive Philly, a nonprofit organization she co-founded dedicated to decreased eating disorder risk in marginalized youth. Moreno is expected to attend medical starting in the fall of 2022 and hopes to one day be a pediatrician working at the intersection of clinical care and public health. Stecyk plans to spend time interning at New England Aquarium and Small Animals Clinic and will attend veterinary school in the near future. Rahematpura will be working as a Hepatology Clinical Research Assistant in the Perelman School of Medicine conducting various clinical studies for patients with liver disease, many of whom struggle with opioid use disorder. Rahematpura aspires to take her knowledge from Schmidt Lab into the clinical world as an Emergency Medicine Physician to serve and discover new solutions for those who suffer from substance use disorders. Merkel, on the other hand, will be staying in Schmidt Lab as a Neuroscience Research Specialist.

Dr. Schmidt is currently an Associate Professor in the Department of Biobehavioral Health Science and holds a secondary appointment in the Department of Psychiatry, Perelman School of Medicine. His area of inquiry and teaching have added tremendous value to the School of Nursing’s research and teaching missions. Given the enormous effects of smoking and obesity on chronic illness and the devastating impact of substance use disorders, his work addresses some of the most pressing and intractable health issues today. Dr. Schmidt has shown leadership in developing undergraduate curricula in this area of expertise and demonstrated excellence in teaching. For example, he co-developed with Peggy Compton , PHD, RN, FAAN an undergraduate course on opioids, opioid use disorders and pain, and a second course on the pharmacology of performance-enhancing drugs that is of interest to students enrolled in all four undergraduate schools at Penn! He has directly supervised 19 undergraduate researchers at Penn who have all gone on to matriculate in top-tier graduate programs and are authors on empirical publications in high-impact journals and conference abstracts.  It is clear – Dr. Schmidt not only educates but also inspires our undergraduate students.

The appointment is effective July 1, 2021. Congrats to a wonderful PI!

Amanda Moreno ’21 has been named a University Scholar by the Center for Undergraduate Research and Fellowships (CURF).

Riley Merkel ’21 has been awarded the BBB Summer 2020 Fellowship for Neuroscience Research based on her proposal “A Paradoxical Role of Amygdalar GLP-1 Signaling in Drug-Seeking Behavior.”

Jennifer Ben Nathan ’22 has been awarded a research position through Penn Undergraduate Research Mentoring Program (PURM) and will join the lab in summer 2020.

Congrats to all our undergraduate researchers and thank you for your commitment and contributions to our work!